Forage harvester sharpening devices have been proposed for sharpening the blades of the rotary chopping cylinder and usually include a grinding wheel that is mounted on guide means above the chopping cylinder and which grinding wheel can be then guided for movement in an axial direction relative to the cylinder and at a proper disposition relative to the blade being sharpened. Each blade is successively presented to the grinding wheel for sharpening. Such an arrangement is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,403 issued Feb. 4, 1975. Another type of sharpener is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,139 issued Apr. 3, 1973. Another prior art forage harvester of the type to which the present invention relates is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,309 issued Oct. 25, 1977 and which shows the means for removably mounting the shear bar relative to the chopping cylinder. The present invention utilizes a mounting means for holding the shear bar in operative crop cutting position which is similar to that shown in the said U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,309.
The above three patents have been assigned to an assignee common with the present invention and in the device as shown in those patents, the shear bar must be removed for sharpening elsewhere, usually back at the workshop of the farmer-operator.